Etymology – Yvonne Gonzales

Keyword: Parasocial

The only place to start in understanding the term para-social is Horton and Wohl’s 1956 “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance.” They use and define para-social relationship (PSR) as for the first time, proposing the term to be used to describe the “seeming face-to-face relationship between spectator and performer.” WhileContinue reading “Keyword: Parasocial”

Keyword: Fandom

The term fandom as a constructed portmanteau of fanatic, shortened to fan, and the English suffix -dom, was first recorded in use in 1903. The definition of fanatic in particular has a strong effect on how fandom is perceived in modern use. The Oxford English Dictionary first lists fanatic as an adjective, meaning “Of anContinue reading “Keyword: Fandom”